Breaking Things: New ways to make you hungry

Restaurants are making great use of social media and other technology these days to deliver information, deals and more. Personally, I get emails from Cotta's Kitchen in Turlock with the weekly menu. Rockin' B's, a new burger place in Modesto, has a lively Facebook presence, as does Earl's Barbecue in Modesto.

Restaurants are making great use of social media and other technology these days to deliver information, deals and more.

Personally, I get emails from Cotta's Kitchen in Turlock with the weekly menu. Rockin' B's, a new burger place in Modesto, has a lively Facebook presence, as do Earl's Barbecue in Denair, Beans Coffee in Waterford and Modesto and La Mo and Dustbowl Brewing in Turlock. Mike Nelson is keeping folks updated on the progress of his new Mike's Grillhouse restaurant on the Facebook page named for his former place, Mike's Roadhouse.

The chain restaurants are out there, as well, but the posts and notes that come from locally owned places have a more personal touch.

Of course, the old ways of communicating are still out there - I'm partial to an ad in the local newspaper for obvious reasons. But even those are on the bandwagon, with programs like Dealsaver and Groupon offering discounts to get customers in the door, and hopefully keep them there.

And those are just the a few of the restaurants. There are all sorts of local businesses out there. I'd love to compile a strong list - who do you follow?